The Mercedes-Benz X-Class is officially on the chopping block and will be removed from the market globally in May.
“It has been decided that from the end of May 2020, we will no longer produce this relatively young model,” Mercedes-Benz said in a statement.
“In our global product portfolio, the X-Class is a niche product which plays a great role in a few markets, including Australia and South Africa.”
The ute was first launched in 2018 and was manufactured at the Nissan plant in Barcelona, Spain, alongside the Navara.
However, it had been reported that Mercedes-Benz’ parent company Daimler was looking to ditch the ute to reduce costs amid profit warnings.
Daimler downgraded its earnings outlook by up to 4% for the 2019 financial year in light of costs associated with a diesel emissions breach and Takata airbag recall.
In 2019, there were only 329 X-Class registrations in New Zealand. This compared to 9492 registrations of the Ford Ranger and 7142 for the Toyota Hilux. Around 15,300 X-Class were sold worldwide for the year.
The X-Class features a 3-litre V6 model and a twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel model.
Pricing originally started from NZ$53,300 for the cab chassis all the way to NZ$88,325 for the top of the range V6 model.
